Saraki considers running against Buhari in 2019

Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki says he’s considering running against President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 if he wins the presidential primary of his party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party.

Saraki who disclosed this on Wednesday said he had been consulting with stakeholders in the Nigerian project, adding that the PDP would make a difference if voted into power in 2019.

In the last one week, the senate President has visited ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and former military President Ibrahim Babangida.

He said the PDP had learnt its lesson from the loss in 2015, while the APC did not learn from their victory.

“We would ensure that the party is strong on security. The APC too have not done well on the issue of security. We have the opportunity with the right kind of presidential candidate and president to provide the leadership for the party. The party has a good opportunity to lead the country in the right direction.”

He also spoke of the Department of State Services (DSS) blockade of the national assembly, wondering what would happen during next year’s elections.

“If a government can go and lock up an arm of government — and it’s never happened in our history — we should all be very concerned… we should not be surprised that they would use security agencies for elections,” Saraki said.

“There has been a persistent disregard for due process and a lack of neutrality for some of these issues. For you to have credible elections, you must have safe elections. Security agencies are actively getting involved in the politics.

He said the fundamentals of whatever the PDP is going to develop would be based on sound democracy, credible elections, freedom of choice of Nigerians.

Saraki alleged that investors have lost confidence in the Buhari government, criticising the current administration’s handling of fuel subsidy.

“Most of the inflows that have come in are merely hot money, and that is because the oil price has gone up,” he said.

“Investment in the real sector is not seen. The private sector, in my view, has probably taken a position that the confidence is not there in the government. The country requires a government that is truly pro-business, and a president that sees himself as a chief marketing officer.

“If we are going to have a subsidy, we should have a budget for subsidy. Because once we have a budget for it, the private sector can also play a role in the importation of petroleum products. And if the private sector plays a role, definitely the cost of the subsidy will go down and there will be more efficiency in the delivery of products. But in the environment we are in today, where it’s only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation that’s doing that, it’s going to be inefficient, it’s not going to be transparent.”